Method and device to cool, package, store and market drinks including making ice from the drink itself

ABSTRACT

A method and device for cooling drinks using ice cubes made from that kind of drink. Packaging, storing and marketing those ice cubes both in their liquid state and after they have been frozen. Marketing the ice cubes together with the drink of its own kind or as a separate entity. Making the said ice cubes using ice cube machines.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention is in the field of drinks and in particular to cool adrink by adding to it frozen cubes of that particular drink.

BACKGROUND ART

It is well known that people prefer to drink cold beverages cooled morethan room temperature. A common method of doing this is to place thedrink in a refrigerator for a few hours before the desired time todrink. This has the disadvantage of needing to plan ahead the quantityand timing when the drinks will be needed, as it can take several hoursto cool bottles of one and a half liters or more. It also assumes thatthere is enough space in the refrigerator to accommodate these bottles.

To overcome these problems another common method is to add ice cubes tothe drink desired to be cooled. The usual way to make such ice cubes isto put water in a container that is divided into cubes or other shapesand place in a freezer. The water freezes and the ice can be removedwhen needed. This obviates the need to plan ahead several hours as theice can be made before it is needed and stored in the freezer withoutsignificant loss of quality over long periods of time. It also basicallysolves the problem of space in the refrigerator as the containers of iceare usually shaped like trays that are stackable and do not use muchspace relative to the volume of drink those cubes can cool.

Another common use of ice cubes is in the commercial market. Hotels,restaurants, pubs, bars, fast-food stores are examples of common usersof large quantities of ice. Here ice cubes are sometimes made in icecube machines that produce and store large quantities of ice. Often theywork on an automatic basis whereby the machine is attached to a watersupply and the machine produces ice continuously until a sensor stopsproduction when the storage bin is full. As ready made ice is removedfrom the bin, the sensor starts the ice production again. This inventionalso can work with these ice making machines.

The main disadvantage of adding water based ice cubes is that theydilute the original drink. Many drinks are manufactured with precisionso that their taste is uniform. This is especially so with drinks madeby well known companies who have sales worldwide. These companies go togreat lengths to make sure the taste of their product is uniformthroughout the world. The addition of ice dilutes and spoils theoriginal taste.

Prior art shows attempts at making flavored ice cubes the same flavor asthe drink but they use concentrates to try to mimic the flavor of theoriginal drink. This leads to a variety of tastes and has the problem ofmissing the exact flavor of the manufacturer's original product. Forexample, this can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,097 issued to Ashley orUS Patent Application Number 20050074523 issued to Rodriguez et al.

This invention comes to overcome these above mentioned disadvantages byusing a method that keeps the manufacture's original taste andconcentration in the “ice” so that there is no dilution of the originaldrink. In addition, this invention innovates methods of storage,packaging and marketing as will be herein revealed.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description present embodiments of the invention,and are intended to provide an overview, or framework, for understandingthe nature and character of the invention as it is claimed. Theaccompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding ofthe invention, and are incorporated into and constitute a part of thisspecification. The drawings illustrate various embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description serve to explain theprinciples and operations of the invention.

The object of the invention is to cause a cooling of a drink usingsmaller quantities of frozen liquid made from the liquid of the drinkthat is desired to be cooled. This method of cooling will have theadvantage of cooling the drink whilst retaining the manufacture'sdesired concentration and taste.

The smaller quantities of drink can be marketed in liquid form with theintention of being frozen. These small quantities of liquid, whenfrozen, will have the similar function as ice cubes that is to say, tomake a drink cold.

The word “cube” herein used is derived from the phrase “ice cube” butdoes not restrict the actual shape of the frozen drink which could bespherical or any other shape considered advantageous for manufacturingor marketing purposes.

The word “container” herein refers to an individual vessel in which theliquid drink is placed for marketing and/or for freezing and when frozenholds one cube;

The phrase “sheet of containers” herein refers to a number of containersjoined together.

There could be, for example, containers in plastic joined together toform a sheet of containers in which the liquid drink is poured. Thesecontainers may be open on top like a conventional ice cube tray orclosed like a hollow bubble. Tubes could join all these closedcontainers rather like tributaries meeting the main river. The main tubewould lead to outside the parameters of the sheet of containers and havea closeable opening for the purpose of filling the containers withliquid. These containers, that are intended to be filled with liquiddrink and be frozen, could be detachably joined together in the sheet ofcontainers, for the purpose of marketing and ease of handling Oncefrozen, the cubes will be extractable from their container by anyconvenient method, for example, using scissors or manual pressure tobreak a plastic seal, thereby releasing the frozen cube.

Another object of this invention is to store, package and market in anovel way, the sheets of containers. The storage and packaging could bein sheets of flexible plastic divided into small individually detachablesections. These sheets could be any suitable overall shape, for example,to fit the shape or to compliment the shape of the bottle of drink. Thiswould enable convenient marketing where for example, each bottle couldhave its freezable drink cubes attached to the bottle or one or moresheets of containers in a box of six bottles.

The contents of the sheets of containers could be marketed in liquidform, from the time of manufacture of the bottles of drink and packagedand sold together with the drinks. Alternatively, the sheets ofcontainers could be marketed separately from the bottles of drink.

Containers filled by the manufacturer could be sealed at the time offilling and would not need a consumer compatible filling and sealingdevice.

Another alternative could be to sell the sheets of containers empty ofany liquid and the consumer could fill them with a portion of the drinkin his possession and freeze it before the time he needs to consume thedrink. A disadvantage of the latter option would be that the consumerwould have to open the drink bottle a period of time before he desiresto consume the drink. This would require more planning and in the caseof carbonated drinks would have the effect of reducing the quantity ofcarbonation in the opened drink bottle. A method of filling and sealingsuch consumer filled sheets of containers would be part of their design.An advantage of marketing such consumer fillable sheets of containerswould be that the consumer could choose to fill the containers with anydrink of his choice, for example one that was not marketed together withsheets of containers, or to fill them with a home made drink.

In all the above mentioned options the material forming the containerfor the freezable drink cubes could be made of suitable materialsdepending whether the drink is soft (gasless) or carbonated. Carbonateddrinks would require a stronger material to contain the pressure causedby the gas.

Another object of this invention is to enable the consumer to consumethe cubes of frozen drink as a pleasurable experience in itself, withoutusing it to cool a beverage.

Many people, especially children, like to eat water based ice cubes.With this invention they will be able to enjoy the ice cube made fromtheir favorite drink. The marketing of such freezable ice cubes madefrom particular and/or well known drinks manufactures could be madeattractive especially for children for example, using shapes of animalsor fruits.

Another object of the invention is for the container to be made torepresent the shape of the fruit of that particular flavor of drink, sofor example, orange drink could have containers for ice shaped like anorange and grape drink containers shaped like a cluster of grapes.

Another object is for the liquid to be frozen is flavored to complimentthe drink destined to be cooled. An example could be for the cubes to beused in a cola drink to have a lemon flavor added to the cola liquid tobe frozen into cubes. Another object of this invention is to produce inan ice making machine, ice made from the drink that is to be served. Asmentioned above this type of machine is used commercially in hotels,bars etc. There could be a number of compartments in the machine eachone producing ice of a different type of drink.

Instead of the ice making apparatus being attached to a water supply, itwould be attached to barrels or containers of the manufacturer's drink.Where gaseous drink is required there could be a bottle of pressured gasattached to the said apparatus as is done in existing establishmentswhere gaseous drinks of known companies are sold direct from barrelsinto cups. The existing art usually works by the gas pressure applied tothe drink forcing the drink out of the faucet. In this embodiment ofthis invention the gas pressure would be used to force the drink from hebarrels supplied by the manufacturer into the ice making machine inorder to make ice cubes of each flavor of drink. In cases where themanufacturer supplies a concentrate then water would be added accordingto the manufacturer's instructions. These flavored ice cubes would bekept frozen in separate dispensers until required for use. In thosecountries of the world where ice has become a major ingredient in thedrinks industry, this embodiment of this invention is anticipated tomake a significant impact. Drinks companies who value the worldwideconsistent and monitored taste of their product will most appreciate theadded value to the customer that this invention provides.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part ofthis specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and,together with the description, serve to explain, by way of example only,the principles of the invention:

Fig A is a schematic depiction of a bottle of drink with a sheet ofcontainers of ice cubes around the neck of the bottle.

Fig B is a schematic depiction showing the top view of a box of sixbottles with the sheet of containers therein.

Fig C is a schematic depiction of a sheet of containers made to befilled with liquid.

Fig D is a schematic depiction of an ice machine adapted for use withthis invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As will be appreciated the present invention is capable of other anddifferent embodiments than those discussed above and described in moredetail below, and its several details are capable of modifications invarious aspects, all without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Accordingly, the drawings and description of the embodiments set forthbelow are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not restrictive.

Fig A shows an optional method of storing and marketing the sheets ofcontainers of this invention. The drawing Fig A shows the cross-sectionview. The sheet 102 of containers 104 could form a sleeve around theneck of the bottle 100. This would utilize the space made by shape ofthe neck of the bottle 100 without interfering with adjacent bottles ina box or on a shelf. This invention in one embodiment requires theliquid in the containers 104 to be from the same manufacturer and flavoras the liquid of the drink in the bottle 100. The consumer could removethe sheet of containers 102 and put all or part of it in the freezer.The containers 104 of liquid or frozen drink could be convenientlyseparable by perforation or otherwise to enable one or more container104 to be separated from its adjacent neighbors. The actual iced drinkcube when formed could be removed from its container 104 by anyconvenient means like for example, by using finger pressure to breaksurrounding plastic seals or using scissors.

Fig B shows another method of storage and marketing this invention. Thisfigure shows the top-view of a box 120 of six drinks 122. The sheet 124of containers 126 could utilize the space near the top of the box 120between bottle necks and adjacent bottle necks and/or between the bottlenecks and the sides of the box 120. There could be at least one layer ofthe said sheet 124 with, for example, the containers 126 thereincontaining the liquid of the drink of those bottles 122.

There could be perforations 128 separating the containers 126 so that asmany as desired could be detached and frozen. When frozen, thecontainers 126 which are individual cubes of iced drink, could bedetached from their neighboring containers by tearing on the perforation128 and then pressing the ice out of the plastic wrapping into the drinkto lower the latter's temperature.

Fig C shows a sheet 150 of containers 154 made to be filled by theconsumer with the drink of his choice. The entrance 152 could berelatively wide to ease the filling process. The containers 154 would bejoined to each other and to the central artery 158 by tubes 156. Therecould be perforations 160 between the containers 154 to ease theirseparation when required to be separated. These perforations 160 wouldnot be made in the plastic forming the container 154 which contains theliquid to be frozen. Where the thickness of the plastic allows, anindentation could be made instead of a perforation, to ease separation.Where the plastic is not thick enough for an indentation, it could betorn. This tearing would be that small plastic tube 156 withperforations 160 on either side of it. After being filled, the entrancecould be closed with a closing device 164 to prevent leaks of drinkuntil the drink is frozen.

Fig D shows an ice making machine 200 divided into a number ofcompartments 202 representing the different flavored ice cubesavailable. Each flavor would have its space 204 for the barrel or othervessel of drink or drink concentrate supplied by the manufacturingcompany making that drink. Also in that space could be the pressured gassupply and water where necessary. The various flavored drinks couldshare the same freezing apparatus. The ice cubes of each drink therebymade would fall or be brought by for example, by conveyer belt to itsspecific frozen storage container. There could be agitators attached tosuch storage containers to ensure the cubes stay separate from eachother while being stored, to ease dispensing the frozen cubes whenneeded. The ice cubes could be stored in a bin inside the compartments202 and be scooped out manually when needed or fall from a chute 206 toease the filling of glasses or jugs. There could be a mechanically orelectronically operated hatch which would open when a vessel is placedunder the chute 206 and would close or be closed when the vessel isremoved. It is anticipated that the standard features of existing art inthese types of ice making machines, like for example, the automaticcontinual production of ice until each bin is full of its flavor of ice,the automatic ceasing of production when each bin is full and theresumption of ice making when ice from a bin has been removed, will beused in conjunction with this invention. The main change this inventioncalls for is the adaptation to cater for the production of one or moredifferent flavors of ice cubes to match the flavors of drinks sold inthat particular establishment.

What is claimed:
 1. A method and device to make ice cubes comprising acontainer to hold liquid to be frozen, a liquid to be frozen being thesame kind of liquid as the liquid to be drunk, a sheet comprising atleast one said container, whereby the ice so formed can be used to coola drink without diluting or adversely affecting the taste of the saiddrink.
 2. A method and device as claimed in claim 1 wherein each saidcontainer is a size and shape suitable for making an ice cube.
 3. Amethod and device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said liquid iscontained in a sheet comprising more than one container joined together.4. A method and device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the said containersare made by a means to withstand the pressure of gaseous drinks.
 5. Amethod and device as claimed in claim 3 wherein there are perforationsbetween the said compartments containing the liquid drink or frozendrink cube to guide and ease the separation of the said compartmentsfrom each other and/or from the said sheet.
 6. A method and device asclaimed in claim 3 wherein the said sheet and said containers are madeof plastic.
 7. A method and device as claimed in claim 3 wherein thefrozen cubes are removable from the said containers by applying manualpressure to the said container.
 8. A method and device as claimed inclaim 7 wherein the said removal is with the aid of a cuttinginstrument.
 9. A method and device as claimed in claim 1 wherein thesaid sheet of containers is marketed while the liquid drink in the saidcontainers is in liquid state.
 10. A method and device as claimed inclaim 1 wherein the said sheet of containers is marketed while theliquid drink in the said containers is in frozen state.
 11. A method anddevice as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said sheet of containers ismarketed together with at least one bottle of drink being of the samekind as the liquid in the said containers.
 12. A method and device asclaimed in claim 11 wherein the volume of space around the neck of abottle of drink is used to house the said sheet of containers whenmarketing the said sheet of containers with the said bottle.
 13. Amethod and device as claimed in claim 11 wherein the marketing of thesaid sheet of containers containing liquid drink or frozen cubes isindependent of the marketing of the said bottle of drink.
 14. A methodand device as claimed in claim 13 wherein the said sheet of containersis marketed empty of drink and with a means of filling the saidcontainers with liquid drink and a means of closing the opening toprevent leakage before being frozen.
 15. A method and device as claimedin claim 1 wherein the said sheet contains passages joining all thecontainers therein.
 16. A method and device as claimed in claim 15wherein the said passages also are connected to a closable opening tooutside the said sheet of containers whereby the said containers can befilled with liquid.
 17. A method and device as claimed in claim 1wherein the said container is a shape or shapes to amuse and attractpeople, especially children, to purchase the said sheets of containers.18. A method and device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the shape of thesaid container represents a fruit or vegetable that is the flavor of thedrink in the container.
 19. A method and device as claimed in claim 1wherein the said liquid to be frozen contains a flavor to compliment theflavor of the drink it is used to cool.
 20. A method and device to makeice cubes using an ice making machine comprising at least onecompartment for producing ice cubes made from the drink it willthereafter be used to cool.
 21. A method and device as claimed in claim20 wherein the source liquid for the said ice cubes is the drink orconcentrate of that drink supplied by the manufacture.
 22. A method anddevice as claimed in claim 20 wherein different flavors of ice cubes aremade and stored in separate compartments of the said machine.
 23. Amethod and device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the said compartmentsare labeled with the name and/or picture of its flavor of drink.
 24. Amethod and device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the cube containers inthe said ice making machine are a shaped of various objects designedamuse and attract people and to encourage sales especially to youngpersons.
 25. A method and device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the icecube containers in the said ice making machine represents a fruit orvegetable that is the flavor of the drink in the container.
 26. A methodand device as claimed in claim 20 wherein the liquid to be frozencontains a flavor to compliment the flavor of the drink it is used tocool.